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Hyphens and Dashes/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are seated at a booth in a diner. Tim is looking at the menu and ordering food from the diner's waiter. TIM: I think I'll have the ham and chee— MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, you interrupted me while I was ordering! You'll have to wait your tur— MOBY: Beep. Moby hands Tim a sheet of paper. TIM: Okay, okay. I'll read the letter. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what's the difference between a hyphen and a dash? From, Marshall. Yeah, I get those mixed up sometimes, too. Hyphens and dashes are those little punctuation marks that separate phrases, words, parts of words, and numbers. The most common ones look like this. Images show four short horizontal lines. Each is slightly longer than the previous one, arranged with shortest on the top to longest on the bottom. TIM: This is a hyphen. An arrow points to the shortest line, on the top. Text reads: hyphen. TIM: And this is a dash. An arrow points to the second-shortest line. Text reads: dash. TIM: This is an en dash. An arrow points to the third line, the second-longest one. Text reads: en dash. TIM: And this is an em dash. An arrow points to the longest line. Text reads: em dash. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks confused. TIM: Oh, yeah. Don't, don't worry. I'll, I'll explain the difference. Tim turns to the waiter, who is still waiting to take his order. TIM: Uh, we might need a minute here. The first and smallest symbol is a hyphen. The four short horizontal lines reappear. The top line is highlighted, along with the text: hyphen. TIM: Hyphens are used in compound words, like heavy-hitting. An image shows a boxer throwing a punch. TIM: When connecting numbers with words, like fifty-year-old. An image shows a fifty-year-old woman. TIM: And when a word starts on one line and continues on the next line. When a word with more than one syllable is too long to fit on one line, a hyphen is used to separate the syllables, and the other syllables go on the next line. An image shows a hand-written paragraph containing a division of the word mustard. Text on the end of a line reads: mus-, with a hyphen. Text at the beginning of the following line reads: tard. TIM: Hyphens are also used when you're spelling out a word, letter by letter. Text reads: w-o-r-d. TIM: Or in some place like a dictionary, to denote the syllables of a word. An image shows a silhouette of a person in profile. Text on the image reads: cra-ni-um. TIM: Hyphens are important in helping us distinguish what the writer is trying to say. In the sentence, "There is a man-eating shark," the hyphen in between "man" and "eating" makes it clear that we're talking about a shark that eats people. Text reads: There is a man-eating shark. The hyphen in the word man-eating is highlighted. An image shows a shark baring its teeth at an underwater swimmer. TIM: Without the hyphen, we might think the writer means that there's a guy actually eating a shark. An image shows the same swimmer, with a full belly, picking his teeth with a shark's bone. There is a shark skeleton in front of him. Text reads: There is a man eating shark. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Okay, on to dashes. There are several kinds of dashes. Three consecutively larger dashes are arranged top-to-bottom. Text next to each dash identifies it. The shortest one is a figure dash, the middle one is an en dash, and the longest one is an em dash. TIM: Like hyphens, they're generally used to break up words, phrases, and numbers, but, but for different reasons. The most common dashes are figure dashes, en dashes, and em dashes. Figure dashes, or just plain old dashes, are just a little longer than hyphens. A figure dash is highlighted. Highlighted text reads: figure dash. TIM: People often make the mistake of using a hyphen instead of a dash. But you really can't blame them. In many word-processing programs, they look exactly the same. A hyphen and a figure dash are shown on the top of a split screen. The figure dash is slightly longer than the hyphen. The bottom image shows a hyphen and a figure dash as they look in a word-processing program. The two figures look the same. TIM: Mostly, dashes are reserved for phone numbers. An image shows a desktop telephone. Text reads: 212‒555‒5516. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, an en dash is slightly longer than a figure dash. An image shows a highlighted en dash. Text reads: en dash. TIM: An en dash usually means to or through, and is used when writing time intervals or number ranges. So you would say, "The store is open Tuesday through Saturday, ten AM to seven PM," and use en dashes for both. An image shows a sign in a store window. Text reads: Opening Hours, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 A.M.–7 P.M. TIM: Or, "She took the New York to Washington, D.C. bus." An animation shows a tour bus. Text above the bus windshield reads: New York–Washington, D.C. TIM: Get it? MOBY: Beep. TIM: An em dash is an even longer line and is used to separate an idea or thought, kind of like parentheses. An image shows a highlighted em dash. Text reads: em dash. TIM: It's like this. Tim reads from a handwritten note. TIM: I saw Moby sneak a piece of cake—the one I made for my mom's birthday—and then drink milk straight from the carton. The em dash after the word "cake" and after the word "birthday" Are highlighted. TIM: Em dashes are also used when there is an interruption or break in a sentence, like for a sudden change in thought. Mmm, I sure could use a piece of apple pie right now— Text reads: Mmm, I sure could use a piece of apple pie right now— A woman walks by the diner's front window. TIM: Wait, was that Cassie? Additional text reads: Wait, was that Cassie? The phrases "Mmm, I sure could use a piece of apple pie right now," and, "Wait, was that Cassie?" are separated by an em dash. TIM: OK, Moby. I'm going to test you on hyphens and dashes. Tim hands Moby a sheet of paper. TIM: Where would you put hyphens and dashes in this sentence? Tim reads from the sheet of paper as Moby studies it. TIM: Johnson the famous left handed pitcher was taking the early Los Angeles New York flight on Monday morning. Moby puts an em dash between "Johnson" and "the." Then he puts a hyphen in the word "left-handed." Then he puts another em dash between "pitcher" and "was." The phrase "the famous left-handed pitcher" is now separated from the rest of the sentence by em dashes. Then Moby puts an en dash between the words "Los Angeles" and "New York," which makes the phrase mean "Los Angeles to New York." Moby hands the paper back to Tim. Tim examines it. TIM: Nice job. You really know your— MOBY: Beep. Moby looks unhappy. TIM: Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's order. A clock slides to the scene, going back to Tim next to a waiter at the beginning scene; the intro Tim said earlier. TIM: I think I'll have the ham and cheese sandwich, sir. WAITER: Ham and cheese, coming right up! The waiter walks away. TIM: Who's this guy? Moby doesn't seem to care about this, so he crosses his arms. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP English Transcripts